29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

17 October 2027

Bible readings for today

Job 38:1-7, 34-41
Psalms 104:1-9, 25
Hebrews 5:1-10
Mark 10:35-45

Liturgical Colour: GREEN

Today is also Tikanga Youth Sunday

Collect

E te Atua mutunga kore nāu i hōmai kia kotahi te iriiri mō te murunga hara;
tukua mai ki a mātou kua whānau mai i te wai,
i te wairua hoki i hangā nei hei pononga mā te Karaiti kia kotahi ai i roto i te whakapono whakaroto me te mahi whakawaho;
Ko Īhu Karaiti tō mātou Ariki.
Āmine.

Eternal God,
you have given us one baptism for the remission of sins;
grant that we who are born of water and the Spirit and made members of Christ,
may be one in inward faith and outward service;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Seek to Serve (Mark 10:35-45)

Leaders Input

Today's gospel reading is about understanding that in Jesus’ eyes, serving and being kind to others is what makes us great.

A reflection on Mark 10:35-45
I always smile when I hear James and John, those Sons of Thunder, burst forth with their little request. I particularly love the ramp-up:

Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” (Mark 10:35 NRSV)

That, my friend, is honesty in prayer. None of the familiar Gethsemane hedging: “Not my will, but thine be done!”

No, this is straightforward human nature face to face with God. Every time I pray I want God to do whatever I ask of him.

It seems nearly universal. Take a look at the books on prayer that have been really big sellers in recent decades: A whole lot of what we want to know about prayer is how to get God to ANSWER and to answer with EXACTLY what we ask for.

We really like those bits in John’s Gospel where Jesus promises that God will grant whatever we ask in his name... [read the rest of the reflection here]

Gospel Conversations 2024: It's lucky for us that the disciples were a thoroughly human bunch, as it gave Jesus the chance to teach them about problems which pop up in every group of human beings. Who's the greatest? Jesus' response challenges some deeply-felt beliefs of our culture. Mike is joined by Steve Benford from the UK, John Goodwin from Auckland, and Natalie Millikan from Dunedin this week.

Gospel Conversations 2021: The disciples have almost made it to Jerusalem and they still don't get it. John Franklin, Gillian Townsley and Jeremy Nicolls join Michael to discuss James and John's ambitions and the indignant remaining disciples. You'll find some insights here you may not have thought of before!

Talk: Who Is The Greatest?

Jesus and his friends were walking down the road. Jesus was talking about some things that would happen to him. He said his enemies would be so angry that they would kill him, but he also promised that he would be alive again. Most of Jesus’ friends were listening really carefully to everything that Jesus said. But not James and John. They weren’t really listening because they were busy thinking about something else. They were thinking about something they wanted Jesus to do for them. James and John (like a lot of other people) thought that Jesus was going to be crowned king while he was alive and being able to sit next to a king would be a really important thing to do. Only special people got to sit right next to royalty!

So they went to Jesus privately and said, "We want you to do something for us."
"What do you want me to do?" Jesus asked.
"When you are sitting on your throne, let us sit in the chairs on each side of you."
Jesus told them, "Only God gets to decide who sits next to me."

When Jesus' other friends heard what James and John had asked for themselves, they were pretty angry with both of them. Jesus called all twelve of them together for a meeting. He said "You know how it is with kings. They’re powerful. They get whatever they want and they get to tell other people what to do. But that’s not the way it should be with you. The one who is most important among my friends is not the person whole is like a king and tells other people what to do, and gets everything they want. NO! The really important one is the one who does what’s good for others. That’s why I came—not to have others do things for me, but to do stuff for them.”

Jesus "came not to be served" Jesus did not come so that people would do something for Him. Jesus came "to serve," to do something for others. And you know what He did for others. He died to take away our sins. That’s why God made Jesus the most important one of all. Jesus was telling us that the way to be really important is to do what we can to help other people.

I Wonder...

I wonder what you think about who is the greatest.
I wonder what you think it means to serve someone else.
I wonder who in your life, you might be able to serve.
I wonder what you liked about the activity we did.
I wonder what you didn’t like about it.
I wonder if you can think of other ways to serve each other.
I wonder what James and John thought when they went to bed that night, and whether they would have done anything differently that day.

Activity: Practical Servanthood

Instead of crafts or activities, think about creating an opportunity for serving your church or wider community. You may need to work with your vicar or administrator to organise this in advance. Try to choose something with some 'fun' potential. You may like to finish with a special morning tea to celebrate your serving together.

Before you start
Explain that this week is all about being a servant- doing things that help others. Share the project that you have decided on. About 10 minutes before the end of your session, clean up and share some snack food.

Some suggestions:
Wash the congregations cars.

better in summer!
Get kids to bring togs or a change of clothes and a towel.
Have lots of buckets, soft sponges, water, and a hose.

Do a rubbish pickup

around the church grounds
or if you are lucky enough to have a playground nearby you could do a rubbish pickup there and finish with a play on the playground.

Make and serve a special morning tea to the congregation.

mix and cook scones or pikelets
take drink orders, pour milk, pass around mornign tea

Important things to remember:

Safety

make sure you have permission slips if you are going off site, adequate ratios of adults to children and safe practices (e.g. adult supervision, plus gloves for rubbish picking up, safety in parking lot etc). Don't forget any allergies if serving food.

Servant Leadership

set an example by getting your hands dirty and working with the children.
use lots of praise and encouragement. Point out the good they’re doing and honour them for their help and service.
approach the job with a joyful and/or playful attitude - this is much more important than efficiency or getting the job done perfectly!

Integenerational Worship

Practical service opportunities (as above) can also be an amazing way to do intergenerational discipleship together and to invite non-Christian friends to hang out. Think about organising an opportunity for all ages in your church community to get involved in serving their wider community together. This could involve things like:

Rubbish pickup

meet at church, divide into groups. Hand out rubbish bags, gloves, and maps and arrange a meeting time either back at the church or at an alternative end point e.g. a local park or playground. When you finish (after copious use of hand sanitizer) hand out iceblocks to celebrate.
Alternately do this at a local beach and finish with a potluck picnic.

Tree Planting

Find a local group and join in on a tree planting or weed clearing day.

Cooking for the community

Organise a big cookup at the church that people can come and help with.
Consider teaming up with a local organisation like BellyFul. Or alternately arrange it so that every family who is involved takes home a meal for themselves and a meal for a neighbour.

Games: Memory Verse Game

Memory Verse Game

What you need

44 paper cups
2 trays
the words of the memory verse either photocopied and cut out or written on the paper cups
scissors and glue stick, or sharpie pen

What you do

Either photocopy the memory verse (x2), cut out and glue 1 word on the side of each cup or write 1 word of the memory verse on each cup.
Put the cups together at one end of the room (keep each collection of memory verses by themselves).
Have the children get into 2 teams and line up at the opposite side of the room.
The first person in each team takes the tray and runs/walks/etc grabs a cup, puts it on the tray and carefully walks back making sure the cup stays upright. Then the next player goes. Once all the cups are back with the team, they can work to put the verse together.
The first team to get all the cups in the right order wins!
Optional: You can put a small amount of water or juice in each cup and require that the player drinks the juice/water before transporting the cup (watch for allergies)
Note: For older children you can ask the to balance the tray on 1 hand.

Game: Being A Server

What you need

2 serving trays - the same size
A large number of plastic or paper cups
2 tables

What you do
Ask for 2 volunteers
Put one pile of 10-12 cups at each end of the first table
Give each player a tray

Instruct the players that when you say ‘go’ they are to unstack their cups, put them on the tray the right way up, run to the other table, unload them without any tipping over. The first one to do this wins. If any cups fall off, they need to start again from the first table.

If you have time, allow other pairs to compete.

Note to leaders: Try this out using the cups and trays before you do it with your group. If you have a small tray, you’ll need fewer cups. Also, very light cups might blow over too easily. If that’s the case, you can put a few lego blocks or other small objects in each cup (rather than having them stacked to begin with).

Game: Simon Says

What you need:
Nothing

What you say:
Who hear knows the game ‘Simon says’? I bet almost all of you do. In this game, whoever is ‘Simon’ gets to tell the rest of us what to do. If Simon says, “Simon says touch your nose” then everyone has to touch their nose. If Simon says, “Simon says jump up and down 3 times” then everyone has to jump up and down 3 times. But if Simon tells us to do something without saying “Simon says” then we can’t do it. In other words, you only do things the “Simon says” to do.

Let’s try it. I’ll be Simon first (give 5-10 commands, most with “Simon says”).

Let’s try again. Let’s have someone else come up and be Simon. (in some circumstances choose someone in advance). This time, if you do something that Simon hasn’t told you to do, sit down. (Again play for awhile).

Well done all of you who are still standing! Ok, everyone can sit down now.

When I asked who would like to be Simon - a lot of you raised your hands. It’s fun being Simon because we get to think up funny things for others to do and we get to order people around. Simon is the most powerful player in the game and a lot of people like to be able to tell other people what to do. Sometimes we need to do that and sometimes we might like to just be a bit bossy.

But today’s reading talks about that. When Jesus hears that James and John want to sit in special seats and be important, he thinks that maybe his other disciples feel the same way. I mean who wouldn’t want to get the special seats. So Jesus needs to talk to them and help them understand that being powerful, having the best seats and being able to tell other people what to do wasn’t what being Jesus’ friend was all about. And you know what? It’s not about those things today either. It can be a little hard to understand because when we’re at work or at school or playing with our friends, other people can tell us what to do and we think they’re more important or special. But Jesus said that the way God sees things, the greatest people aren’t the most powerful or the richest or the smartest, the greatest people are the ones that help and serve others!